Jordan: More than Meets the Eye: Price Tags of Petra

“Ride before you die”

“Don’t worry be happy”

These are the two phrases that I can hardly forget since I was in Jordan, because it was repeated repetitively by the people in the most-visited touristic site in Jordan, which is Petra. We were looking forward to this visit, because Petra is a major destination in Jordan, which is also categorized as UNESCO World Heritage. Highlighting the fact that it is a very famous site, we prepared ourselves with the thoughts that there would be many service providers and souvenir sellers that try to do some offerings. The thought was nearly accurate. As soon as we enter the site, there were many children offering some gums, the older men tried to offer a horse ride to the treasure, while several of them tried to sell antique coins. I felt like everything in Petra has a price tag; when you want something in Petra, there will always be a price for it. This situation is also called as commodification of touristic places. What attracts my attention is the fact that many of these people dressed in a traditional way – some of them even put mascara on their eyes in order to signify their authenticity. However, it is interesting to note that instead of providing ‘the authentic experience’, commodification of touristic places can lead to inauthenticity, as it gives an alienating sense to the experiences that they had (Halewood & Hannam, 2001). Paradoxically, although various tourism commodities (for example souvenirs) are commodified goods, those are produced and consumed as “authentic” experiences, as explained by Halewood and Hannam (2001). In this case, I felt that the people were very struggling with the condition of tourism in Jordan right now, that they have to put even more effort in turning any kind of product or services into touristic commodities. Therefore in my opinion, it is inevitable that the gap between the ‘authentic’ experience and the staged performance will increase.